All The Tropes

Men Are the Expendable Gender/Analysis: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Men Are the Expendable Gender/Analysis (view source)

Revision as of 16:36, 1 April 2021

55 bytes removed ,  3 years ago
no edit summary
VisualWikitext
m (Mass update links)
No edit summary
 
(3 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)
Line 1:
{{Analysis}}{{trope}}
== Male Death is More Numerous ==
When it's time for a character to hit the big one, either by a freak accident or by [[Heroic Sacrifice|nobly sacrificing]] himself, writers go about the situation as if it were a pickle jar: get a man to do it. If [[Kill'Em All|the entire cast has to die]], men will go first. However, this phenomenon is much more noticeable with extras; if large amounts of anonymous people have to die to demonstrate the severity of a threat, they will be men. Armies of [[Mooks]] are almost always populated solely by males.
Line 9:
 
== Death as [[Emotional Torque]] ==
Because the victimization of female characters has more emotional impact with audiences, their deaths are often used to drive plots, motivate protagonists and present touching denouements. Male characters may also serve this purpose--afterpurpose—after they've earned audience sympathy--butsympathy—but expect a far higher proportion of anonymous and meaningless male death for every one inspirational male death. In general, if a female character dies, it emphasizes the tragedy or horror of a situation. If a male character dies, it emphasizes the danger or functions as [[Gorn]].
 
When the nameless masses die off, a character will often comment that the villain killed innocent women and [[Children Are Innocent|children]]. Male deaths seem to be considered regrettable but not nearly as tragic, as though men are automatically considered to be [[A Real Man Is a Killer|combatants]] who died in battle - even if they were actually innocent bystanders who had absolutely no chance to defend themselves. Sometimes villains will defend themselves by saying that they only target men, as if actions that result in the death of men are morally neutral. (Note that being [[Kick Them While They Are Down|wounded, disabled or very elderly]] trumps being a man, as it takes one out of the "combatant" category.) [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl]], [[Wouldn't Hurt a Child]] and [[Would Not Shoot a Civilian]] are closely related tropes.
 
A male character can elevate himself to the status of a female extra through sympathetic characterization--thuscharacterization—thus earning himself a noteworthy death--butdeath—but female characters always start with audience sympathy. Conversely, a female character can lose audience sympathy through actively unsympathetic characterization. Even so, villainous female characters are often treated as less genuinely evil than male villains, scoring more [[Karma Houdini|Get Of Jail Free cards]] and [[High Heel Face Turn|convenient redemptions]]. Female characters also have to act far worse to lose this kind of sympathy, and are more often given [[Freudian Excuse|an excuse]] for their bad behavior. Namely, a female character only crosses the line if she [[Would Hurt a Child|targets children for death]], especially if she does the killing herself, or if she openly admits to [[Good Girls Avoid Abortion|have had an abortion]] and isn't constantly angsting about it.
 
 
== Death as [[Gorn]] ==
Media in which death is unrealistically sanitary--anysanitary—any death that involves no wounding, little blood or is offscreen and only alluded to--mayto—may approach a 50-50 gender split for deaths as these deaths don't involve [[Gorn]]. Female death in these series will be often be long, tragic, noble, meaningful and/or beautiful - sometimes in [[Male Gaze|sexualized ways]] - but always [[Beauty Is Never Tarnished|unblemished]]. Male death will often be atmospheric and mostly unremarked upon.
 
The more realistically brutal a work's portrayal of death is, the more the death toll will skew toward adult men. Part of the dramatic impact of these deaths is in watching a human body being dismembered, brutalized, hacked apart or otherwise treated like a piece of meat. However, mainstream audiences generally do not want to see this happen to sympathetic characters, which excludes women and children by default.
Line 25:
A subset of this trope relates to the treatment of male vs. female bodies. It is more acceptable to show all aspects of male death, from brutal mutilation to the corpse itself. It's also more acceptable to [[Due to the Dead|manhandle or disrespect a male corpse]]. Lighthearted jokes from morticians, detectives and coroners are more common with male rather than female corpses.
 
On the other hand, and related to the above "Death As [[Emotional Torque]]" point; a woman's [[Gorn|gornygorn]]y death will usually be considered worse than if a man were killed in the exact same manner (even if it is only the audience that considers the scene more harrowing).
 
 
Line 49:
There are a ''lot'' of related tropes:
 
* [[Abuse Is Okay When Its Female On Male|Abuse Is Okay When It's Female On Male]]
* [[Always Save the Girl]]
* [[Closer to Earth]]
* [[Disposable Woman]]
* [[Distressed Damsel in Distress]]
* [[Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male)]]
* [[The Dulcinea Effect]]
* [[Her Heart Will Go On]]
Line 83:
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Analysis/Analysis]]
[[Category:Men Are the Expendable Gender]]
[[Category:Analysis]]
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/932615...1878052"